-30ºC!!! More on Angarsk and Listvianka

Weather next week in Irkutsk

The last few days have been marked by a rather large drop in temperature to the low twenties and thirties. With this cold have come obvious drawbacks - the greatest of these, other than being cold, was the fact that my nostrils froze, creating a rather odd tingling sensation in my nose. The second was that my eyelashes gathered a thin layer of frost whilst I was out walking, and I consequently had white eyelashes for a few minutes until it melted off and dripped down my face. Girls walking through the streets have an added problem - their hair, when exposed to this same cold, without needing to be wet, promptly turns white - Gloria also told me that the old ladies here in Russia who don't shave their moustaches (there are a lot of these women) end up having a white moustache, which is more visible, and more disturbing than their normal one...

On the 14th, I woke up and called the Circum-Baikal train, and asked them if how everything was going - they said they couldn't talk then but would call me back (by 4pm, I had managed to find 24 people to go on the train, which I was sure would be sufficient!) - after teaching in Angarsk, however, I got a message from Marina telling me that when she had called them, they had told her that there were more problems within the company, and that now the train would only run if there were 35 people to fill it as opposed to the previously agreed 25. Needless to say, having bullied a lot of friends into agreeing to going with me on the Circum-Baikal, I knew I was unable to find any more, and so had to call the whole trip off. Fortunately, it was relatively easy to call everyone up and let them know that the trip would not be going ahead as planned. Still, quite disappointing... Hopefully we'll be able to go next semester. I'll definitely try to do it, whether with people or alone!

One of the main streets in Angarsk

My lesson in Angarsk on Wednesday also went well, although not as well as my first lesson - I had been asked to prepare for them a presentation on Christmas and so with a bit of help I got a presentation together and got them to do an activity. Unfortunately, a lot of the vocabulary was way too hard for the students, and they didn't really understand what I was trying to get them to do with the activity (either that or they just kept cheating...). Eventually, however, we got through the class - I have a new student, Julia - she and Tatiana (the teacher) approached me at the end of the lesson and asked me if I could help out with a project on how colours are viewed in different cultures - to see if I could disseminate the questionnaire amongst Spanish friends. I said I'd see what I can do, so may post it up here at some point too. Hopefully next time I'll be able to carry on with the lessons at a calmer pace as opposed to having to teach them about something specific like Christmas again! I think its too early to go into too much detail anyway!

Some people we saw outside LinguaCafé letting loose a
Chinese Lantern

On Thursday, I decided to work my way through one of the books which the teacher has given us - it has a load of great exercises to practice Russian, and is really really good, if somewhat scary to approach! At half past six, I met Marina and Tanya and went to a café near the university. Despite speaking only in Russian to each other, they asked me to read them a couple of Spanish poems, and I was happy to oblige - a long conversation about Spain and the Spanish culture ensued, which carried on until almost eight o'clock, when the three of us got the bus to the Vogue café, where the LinguaCafé group meet every Thursday. It was interesting to be there, a lot of foreigners mingling with Russians, although speaking to each other mostly in Russian - Maria, Tanya and I left a bit earlier than the rest so that we could get a marshrutka back (we were lucky enough to catch one which went past just at the right moment!), and the rest, save for Britt and Dries, who decided to go out and party with the Russians, arrived back in a taxi shortly afterwards...

Corinne, Soojin and Yoonah outside
the University

The girls re-enacting Pulp Fiction

Friday was to have been Corinne's last day of class, but she only arrived right at the end of the lesson to get a paper signed by Elizabeta and in order to say goodbye to all of our Korean friends, who were devastated to see her leave. Although I had intended to spend a quiet night in, Britt came dow not long after we got back and invited us all to go out with the girls from upstairs and a couple of Russian girls she'd met the night before, to go bowling at the Bowling Alley next to Akula. Despite initial reservations, I agreed to go, despite the fact that we were absolutely freezing as we waited for the tram, we arrived and had a great time there, during which my bowling skills improved not at all. They did have a Pulp Fiction style restaurant car, which was the source of great pleasure to the girls, who would just sit in it and feel cool. Eventually, Danya, Emily and I decided to head off and get a tram back (the rest were all coming back in a taxi), which we caught just in time.

Gloria and Guillaume by the frosty Baikal

Self standing on the river which flows into Baikal

Yesterday, in order to make up for not going on the Circum-Baikal, I had decided to go to Listvianka for the day. Tanya had to back out of this plan at the last minute, but we carried on, and Gloria, Guillaume and I met at the marshrutka stop for Listvianka at 10:00 am. The whole trip was really good - the trees are all snowed over, and Listvianka itself looked like a fairy-tale - the beach was frozen and covered in snow, and we walked along the street, chatting and stopping to take photos every now and again. Gloria, having been here last year as well, already knew quite a bit about Listvianka, and therefore walked us towards a different section of the beach, where there were only two or three people minding their own business, and we were able to explore (a bit of ice-climbing may have been involved) to our hearts' content. One river had already frozen over, so we walked over that, had some pirajki (pies - meat this time, although before I've always had potato or cabbage) and then caught the marshrutka back to Irkutsk at about 16:30.

The three films we watched

Once we arrived back, I just hung around the residence for a while, until just before 23:00 I got some warm clothes together and went out to the 'Night at the Cinema' which had been organised for Saturday - Sunday. First, however, I went to Harat's, where I met up with all of the people from the Irkutsk State University, and then went to Barguzin cinema which is very close to the residence. I was sat (in the first film, at least), between Isi and Theresa, sharing in all the food which they somehow seemed to have acquired. The films we watched were, in order: 'Arthur Christmas', 'Ëlka 2' and 'Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol'. Needless to say, by the end of the third film, a lot of people had fallen asleep, and just wanted to go home. At least I can say that I managed to stay awake through all three of these films! As the last film finished at about six o'clock in the morning, when we ended, we stood around for a bit, before we finally all went home (I woke the babushka, but she had told me previously that it was OK if I was coming back at that time).

Two 100 rouble notes - the counterfeit is the bottom one

Today, I slept most of the day, having breakfast at lunch time... Afterwards, I went to try and buy some long-johns - my legs have been freezing these past few days, and I've really needed a pair! I found some nice-looking ones in the market near the residence, and coughed up the money for them. The man paid me back, but as I took the money, I noticed that one of the notes was a counterfeit banknote, which I pointed out to him. I was very apologetic, and offered me a different one instead, but I insisted that for a foreigner such as myself getting a fake banknote is incredibly exciting, especially if you can actually see the differences. He must almost certainly have been wondering what on earth I was thinking, but he let me walk away with it nonetheless.

Pot of food

Today I was also given the task of cooking once more - not being very sure what I should pull out of the pan this time, I decided to search for online recipes, finding my meal of choice when searching for 'rice-based meal' on google. A recipe, admittedly, for bachelors, I followed it, occasionally deviating from the recipe, but almost always sticking to it, to make a lovely one-pot wonder. It was definitely that - the whole meal filled one of our larger pots, and even with an appetite as voracious as my own, we were unable to finish it, and have had to leave some for later! Definitely a winner though, and I managed to buy broccoli and fresh meat here, which I had been annoyed about not finding before!